State of Research

This chapter identifies, analyzes and evaluates existing research approaches in context of planning heat flows in production systems. For this purpose, specific evaluation criteria and sub-criteria are formulated first (Sect. 3.1). Due to the extent of the topic, the core field of research is delimited from other interesting but rather adjacent fields of research (Sect. 3.2). A detailed review of identified approaches from the core field of research helps to understand the unique character of each approach (Sect. 3.3). A comparative overview and discussion of those approaches subject to the initially defined evaluation criteria reveals existing gaps of each approach and states the basis for future research demand (Sect. 3.4).